The Warrior Generals: Combat Leadership in the Civil War [Hardcover]

Thomas Buell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 25, 1997

master historian gives readers a fresh new picture of the Civil War as it really was. Buell examines three pairs of commanders from the North and South, who met each other in battle. Following each pair through the entire war, the author reveals the human dimensions of the drama and brings the battles to life. 38 b&w photos.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

YA. An extraordinary look at military leadership during the Civil War. Buell focuses on the successes and failures of three Union generals?Ulysses S. Grant, George H. Thomas, and Francis C. Barlow?and three Confederate generals?Robert E. Lee, John Bell Hood, and John B. Gordon. Their battles and campaigns are examined by modern military standards and Buell's conclusions are insightful and at times revisionistic. By the end of the book, readers are left with an impression that Lee was often indecisive, had no strategic vision, and may have been single-handedly responsible for costing tens of thousands of lives by prolonging a war that could not be won. Grant comes off no better. Although eventually victorious, he is shown as impulsive, vindictive, and self-deceiving. What set Thomas apart was his attention to details. His staff was professional and capable, which allowed him to master the technology that gave him the ability to command and control his subordinates over large distances and to sustain his massive army deep in enemy territory. Readers are also left with a very positive impression of Barlow. In contrast, Hood is shown to be unable to adapt to the burden of leadership and changing technology. Although Gordon's leadership is examined, it is not with the sane detail as the other five generals; thus, there is too little information to compare him with his counterpart, Barlow. Buell crowns the book with an annotated bibliography. This superb book is easy to read, well organized, and liberally illustrated with period photographs and drawings.?Robert Burnham, R. E. Lee High School, Springfield, VA
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Author

"One of the greatest difficulties in understanding how the generals functioned is that much of the war's history is biased and distorted. Upon scholarly inquiry, truisms about popular historical events and personalities are often discovered to be entirely misleading or wrong. It was something that Samuel Johnson knew about. "Many things which are false," he once said, " are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world." So it has been with much of Civil War history. The misconceptions are pervasive and widespread, even among those who are in a position to know better. A few years ago I accompanied a party of Army War College students on a staff ride across Virginia Civil War battlefields. These senior army officers, steeped in the principles of their profession, expressed the view that the Confederacy's generals were the superior leaders in terms of competency and experience, and that the Federal generals ultimately prevailed not because of their leadership skills, but the abundance of northern manpower and material. This prevailing but mistaken view of the Civil War generals is considered common knowledge from grammar school to the senior service colleges. While it does not bear up to scrutiny, rarely is it challenged The importance of the western and eastern theaters is similarly distorted. The popular PBS Civil War documentary, like most works on the war, emphasized the eastern campaigns. Gettysburg received nearly an entire episode, Franklin and Nashville but a few moments of passing commentary, yet the Tennessee campaign was the more decisive on the outcome of the war. Under these circumstances, Civil War history and the roles of its generals cry for clarification and revision. Through my researching primary sources to the extent possible, facts have come to light that have cleared away layers of mythology and folklore. What follows in the book is a fresh assessment of what happened and why."
--Thomas B. Buell --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 494 pages
• Publisher: Crown; 1 edition (February 25, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0517595710
• ISBN-13: 978-0517595718
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,471,942 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fresh, June 1, 2004

By 

Theo Logos (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Warrior Generals: Combat Leadership in the Civil War (Paperback)

First, a caveat: If you say, "War of Northern Aggression", hold dear the Lost Cause, and celebrate Massa Robert Lee's birthday as a high holy day, you should avoid this book altogether rather than read it and go on to write an emotional review raving against it and giving only one star. This book dares depart from the usual hagiographic treatment of Lee, suggesting that some of his actions were less than genius, and that some were brutal mistakes. Trust me, if you consider this sacrilege, please avoid this book.
As for everyone else, this is an outstanding book - the freshest take on the Civil War that I have read in years. Buell ignores the received wisdom on such giants as Grant, Lee, Sherman, Hood, and Jackson, and goes back to original sources to reconstruct the actual men behind the legends. His take on these generals is sometimes controversial, usually enlightening, and always interesting.
Buell focuses on three pairs of generals - Grant and Lee, Thomas and Hood, and Barlow and Gordon. This devise works well to allow him to examine each major phase of the war in both the eastern and western theaters. By including the lesser known Barlow and Gordon, Buell is also able to contrast the West Point trained professionals to volunteer generals who made up such a large segment of those who served in the Civil War.
Grant and Lee, in particular, come in for reassessment in Buell's work, and both suffer somewhat from it. This, however, is not character assassination, but a valid reexamination of undeniably great men, assessing them by their actions rather than the legends that have grown around them. You might not totally agree with all of Buell's conclusions, but they may make you reassess what you think you already know.
One of the high points of the book is the treatment of General George Thomas. One of the greatest generals of the war, Thomas has been often overlooked for many reasons (including the fact that he was a Southerner mistrusted by the North, he did not get along well with Grant, and he died shortly after the war leaving no memoirs.)What you read here will leave you hungry for more information on the great forgotten man of the Civil War.
Buell writes well, his prose moves swiftly, and though he covers the general's actions in many battles, he never gets bogged down in the details that are more appropriately left to books that cover a particular campaign.
Read this book and you will discover something almost as rare as a Burnside victory - fresh ideas about the Civil War.


Theo Logos

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars General Geoge H. Thomas receives over-due recognition., January 31, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Warrior Generals: Combat Leadership in the Civil War (Hardcover)

Mr. Buell has written an engrossing,controversial work that analyzes the combat generalship of Grant, Lee, Thomas, Hood, Gordon and Francis C. Barlow. Buell's basic argument is that the supremacy of southern generalship is more myth than fact. Buell's treatments of Grant, Gordon,Hood, and Barlow are all well done but hardly controversial. Buell makes a very strong case for Thomas who saved the Army of the Cumberland at Chickamauga and thus became known as the "Rock of Chickamauga". Buell paints a picture of Thomas as a hard-nosed,unassuming general whose command of logistics, communications, and cartography were unmatched by most of his contemporaries. Buell seems to be saying that Thomas's Virgina roots, his uneasy relationship with Grant, and his quiet manner have conspired to deny him his just recognition as a truly great Civil War general. Buell's treatment of Lee is unabashedly negative. Buell skewers Lee for vague orders to his commanders,disregard for the importance of logistics,and frontal assaults that drained the Confederacy of its meager manpower resources. Polemics or just looking at the facts? Judge for yourself. Robert E. Lee may not be the nearly faultless general immortalized by Freeman, but I strongly doubt that he is the fool described by Buell. Two final comments. Buell asserts that the physical condition of the southern troops going into the Battle of Sharpsburg made them almost unfit to fight. He further lambastes Lee for allowing his army to degenerate into unchecked marauders in their retreat to Virginia. I have not seen those points in other works on the Sharpsburg campaign. Finally, Buell writes movingly of the personal lives of Gordon and Barlow. Read this book if for no other reason than to stimulate reconsideration of your own assessments of these men.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well-written revisionism, December 14, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Warrior Generals: Combat Leadership in the Civil War (Hardcover)

I'm usually loathe to read Civil War tactics books, which often bog down into regimental numbers and the verb "flank." But Buell kept me going through this one. I was attracted at first to his attention to George Thomas, who was one of my heroes growing up, but I stayed for the duration.

Truth be told, it's a well-written book that makes its (controversial) points very effectively and tells a couple of good stories in the process. Thomas -- easily the most underrated general in this or any American War -- is given his due, and other Union commanders are treated fairly.

And as these other reviews will show, not everyone will agree with Buell's thoughts on Lee, but having read the book and corresponded with the author briefly in 1997, they are sincere and well-thought out -- a good counterpoint to the traditional view of the CSA.

As with all books focusing on George Thomas, The Warrior Generals has an atmosphere of tragedy and injustice, perhaps reflecting its subject's sad life too well.